At the End of the Line
by flaidesII
Summary: From the bench, Taiga makes a discovery he'd rather not have. But it's impossible to keep oneself away from your own shadow. Kagami/Kuroko, will eventually be M.
1. The Bench

This will be a story this is updated as each new episode comes out. This first chapter begins with episode 10. It will be loosely based on the timeline of the anime, and not the manga. I have not gotten around to reading the manga yet, and so please ignore any tidbits that might contradict the storyline of the books. I'd love reviews, and any requests people would like!

* * *

It probably happened during the god-awful time Taiga had been forced on the bench. He could remember sitting there, trying to get his breath under control, listening to Seiho's shouts from the other side of the court. His fingers were gripping his seat and he could feel his right foot tapping in annoyance. He was frustrated, angry, pissed even-

For awhile he couldn't understand what he was thinking. He sat there, watching the seniors sweat it out, grabbing a scatter plot of single point shots here and there, and he knew he was still angry, regardless of Seirin winning. He didn't get it.

Aida was sitting next to him. He could feel her weariness as she watched the teams tackle back and forth. Her anxiety was a sharp smell he was sure would be perceptible on the other side of the room. For a moment, he thought of chewing her out for grabbing him out of the game, for giving him that 'no-arguments' evil eye she was so fond of. But he'd lost the energy to do such a thing and, frankly, wasn't up for the consequences.

He remembered looking out to the court then, the third quarter coming to a hairsplitting end, and his eyes caught site of Kuroko dashing across. The shock of blue hair was matted down with sweat, and the boy seemed to be looking around the court for an opening.

Then the boy was gone.

Taiga nearly stood up in surprise and frantically looked for him, not believing he could have zipped away that fast.  
_  
Impossible… I can always see where he is on the court-  
_  
But he was nowhere. It unsettled Taiga for reasons he couldn't explain. _  
_  
"Amazing…"_  
_  
He could feel Aida's eyes on him.

"He's always like this. You didn't know?"

Taiga shook his head quickly in defiance. He huffed out his frustrations and leaned back onto the bench. He was still pissed at her.

"He's quick but I can see him when I'm on the court." He tried to sound as if it didn't faze him.

Nevertheless he made sure to follow the boy more closely.

Aida scooted a little closer to Taiga, not paying attention to the weird looks she was getting. Her voice dropped down a pitch or two, and she sounded nearly pitying.

"You can see him on the court because he's always behind you, and to the right. You've gotten used to him, I think. But with you off the court, he's got no one to assist directly, and so he's trying different things. He's really good, don't you think?"

He ignored her and watched as Kuroko reversed the ball back onto the court in a perfect, complete pass, and for a moment his stomach clenched.  
_  
He wasn't like this when I took him one on one. But…  
_  
For a moment he felt like Aida was staring at him, waiting for some sort of response. He didn't know what for. Her eyes seemed to be trying to pick thoughts straight out of his head. But all he could think of was Kuroko silently watching him during games, at Maji Burger, at practice. He could remember the first time he ate with Kuroko at Maji's, the way the boy hadn't cowered from him and had instead announced his plans to make him stronger. He was hard to keep track of, but Taiga had gotten so used to it that he silently prided himself on being able to spot Kuroko in a crowd. The boy was invisible but Taiga always seemed to remember him.  
_  
Shit.  
_  
The ball was nearly out of bounds and Kuroko artfully looped it back in. Taiga finally noticed that his Shadow favored his left side, just a bit. And that he was probably wearing new sweatbands.

And that's about when it happened. When Taiga thought that maybe he'd fallen a little bit in love with Kuroko.

* * *

When Taiga was in middle school, he had kissed three girls. One had been on Valentine's, which had been slightly different in the States than in Japan, but basically the same thing. The girl hadn't made him chocolates like White Day required, but she'd kissed him on the cheek and told him that she liked him.

The other was someone he knew from after school sports; she had played lacrosse and had grabbed him by the face when she'd made the team. He tried kissing her back, and when he found that her lips were nice, with a hint of maybe too much makeup on her cheeks, he decided that anything of the sort would just be a distraction from basketball.

The third one, he had kissed himself. The girl had been in his math class. He had developed somewhat of a crush on her, after she had helped him pass algebra. He could remember stuttering a bit around her, and thinking about things he really shouldn't have. He was thirteen then, and his imagination was unusually rampant. But nothing ever came of it, and when he kissed her during a study session, she called him her friend, and said she wasn't interested.

Those were nothing like what he was putting himself through now.

He sat in his usual spot at Maji Burger, the sun sitting low on the horizon. He would have stared at it for a distraction if it didn't burn his eyes so much. He felt guilty, knowing that he had told all those girls that maybe he liked them when, sitting across from him, was the only incarnation of those possible crushes.

"I had a teammate that called me Tetsu once."

Kuroko went back to drinking his milkshake once he had made the announcement. Taiga paused for a moment, the burger halfway to his mouth, and looked questioningly at his dining partner. The mere mention of the nickname irked him.

_What kind of conversation starter is that, anyway?  
_  
"That's different. I've never heard anyone call you anything but Kuroko. Even Kise does."

For a fleeting moment he thought of himself saying Tetsuya instead of Kuroko. It made his mouth itch.

Kuroko cocked his head to the side before putting his milkshake down. There was a strange look to his face; one of interest, though his eyes were squinting from the sun through Maji Burger's window.

"I was going to say that I don't like the name Tetsu. It sounds childish."

He went back to drinking his milkshake and Taiga looked incredulously at him.

"Childish? No it doesn't. Kagami-chii does. I mean, who does that? I barely know him."

Taiga went back to shamelessly stuffing his face. He could feel the burn from Kuroko's gaze, the way the younger man never seemed to look away from his partner. It had been getting worse since the Seiho match; the way Kuroko didn't look away from anything if he was talking to Taiga. _Or it's just my imagination. Or deprivation. When's the last time-? I don't wanna know._

Trying his best not to think of Kise, Taiga took the wrappers of every single one of his burgers and began balling them up into little wads of trash. He started throwing each of them into the nearby trash can. Kuroko didn't bother to look and see if they made it in.  
_  
_"Kise likes you, is all. Even if he prefers that you not be around me."

Taiga nearly choked.

"What does he care? It's not like you're on his team. Besides, doesn't he know that you- that you're-"

He stopped for a moment, his arm halfway to tossing another trash ball. _Doesn't he know you're my Shadow? MY shadow? That sounds creepy._

How would you even ask something like that? Maybe before Seiho he could have said something like it, but Taiga couldn't speak with the boy without making a fool of himself anymore, let alone look at him. He was breaking a sweat just being _around _him. Practices had become unbearable, and he had a feeling that Aida knew what was happening; instead of strengthening play between all her players, she had not failed to pair Taiga with Kuroko for three weeks straight. And though Aida had no influence in the locker room, it was a place where things were ten times worse. Kuroko would naturally follow Taiga in after practice, the sounds of the team talking doing little to drown out Taiga's not so kid friendly thoughts. Kise preferring he not be around him? At this point, Taiga was considering the idea himself. But throwing the idea of Kise on top of it was worse. That guy was annoying, that was all. He had nothing to do with Taiga's irritation. Always screaming _Kuroko-chi, Kuroko-chi_… Christ.

"That I'm what?"

Taiga frowned. He'd forgotten how scatterbrained he'd been recently.

"That you're- on Seirin... you know. It's not like you'd actually go play with him instead."

He prayed that that last sentence had no semblance of a question in it.

"Of course not." Kuroko had never answered a question so quickly before.

In that instant, Taiga took the way Kuroko had looked answering that question and applied it to something ridiculous. He saw himself asking the boy out, after practice on the school grounds in the afternoon, and all he could hear in response was, _"Of course not. Of course not. Of course not."_

Taiga sighed and leaned on one hand, the day's practice finally kicking in. His mind could barely keep up with the fatigue, and these ridiculous notions he kept playing out in his mind weren't helping either. His gaze strayed from Kuroko's frown, his empty milkshake, and landed on the entry way to Maji. At this point, more people were streaming into the joint, and he felt a bit awkward for a moment. Two guys eating burgers this late; it _had _to appear normal. Two guys eating burgers this late _every day? _He took a moment to entertain the idea of him and Kuroko going on a date.

He wondered if Kuroko had ever been on a date.

"The person who called you Tetsu; was it a girlfriend?"

He cursed himself for asking it, but he was glad he didn't look away in embarrassment. If he had, he would have missed the fleeting look of fear in Kuroko's eyes, the dash of surprise written on his features. _That's new._ The boy's expression teetered on something indefinable, but in moments it was gone. Taiga filed the look away in his mind for later inspection.

"I've never had a girlfriend. It was an old teammate."

Taiga's heart leaped ridiculously at the news. It was a pointless piece of information, but at least the answer hadn't been, "I'm unable to keep girls off of me." If Kuroko ever _did_ have a girlfriend, Taiga imagined she'd be perhaps not as quiet, and maybe have a weird obsession or two. Kuroko wasn't tall, so she'd have to be at least a few inches shorter than him, which would be relatively easy to find, and-

His own six foot two inches was probably a bit scary to Kuroko.

Kuroko eyed him weirdly for a second, a small smile on his features. Taiga didn't look away for quite a bit, until it finally unnerved him. He threw the last trash ball across the way and settled down to stare back.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking that the way you say Tetsu is a bit better."

_What?_

Taiga quickly rewound the entire last few minutes in his head. In a terrifying echo, he heard himself say _"The person who called you Tetsu-"_

Tetsu. Tetsu. Tetsu.

He was certain a blush was flaring up. He felt himself looking for a distraction- his hands halfway went to another ball of trash that wasn't there. He looked out the window to see if people were walking by. In that horrible draw of luck, there was no one. In a last ditch effort, he tried to make the nickname seem dismissible.

"But… you don't like the name. I won't use it then."

"So Tetsuya is fine."

Taiga quickly shut his mouth. He was most likely making it worse.

It wasn't that he didn't like the name. In fact, he liked the name. He _really _liked the name. And it was only fair that he was the one to be given permission to call him Tetsuya instead. But it brought up images that he really didn't like to think about. And it would give the seniors even more of a chance to poke fun at him; they always seemed to like pointing out that he was around Kuroko at any moment in time, and if he started calling him a nickname now, it would just get worse.

Yet when he looked back at him across the table, he had to admit he'd already been using the name in his head for awhile.

Kuroko sat there, seemingly transfixed with something on Taiga's face. It irritated him even more. Taiga swallowed his own stomach and nerves back down and glared. The only course of action now was to change the subject.

"Well, it's late Kurok-"

"Tetsuya."

Taiga's anger pinched at the back of his neck.

"Tetsuya. Fine. It's Tetsuya."

He would never get used to the name.

* * *

At one point in his life, Taiga decided he would never give up on anything. Especially basketball. But somewhere in the back of his mind, the promise he made to himself about his favorite sport also translated to a full fledged attack on anything he attempted; he would always finish it, regardless of the circumstances.

His brain decided somewhere along the line that Kuroko was the same as anything he ever started. Kuroko was certainly no task to be conquered or person to best; he was his Shadow, a friend, a _best _friend, and Taiga understood that. But in his mind, Kuroko slowly became incorporated into a larger plan, one that Taiga wasn't sure he had consciously made.

He wanted Kuroko there, around him, whether he was playing basketball or not.

He had become such a natural occurrence that Taiga ceased to question it. He became used to Kuroko handing him things out of the blue at the exact time he needed it. There was never a time that he needed to speak to Kuroko and he wasn't already behind him. When people went searching for the smaller boy, they came to Taiga, and he was almost always next to him. And when it came to the point that they started to embarrassingly share some of their lunches, Taiga was so far gone that he couldn't bring himself to care. He hadn't been joking when he labeled himself a shadow.

The boy walked next to him, milkshake free for once in his life, heading home after the night out at Maji's. His casual clothes were deviously attractive compared to the usual school uniform. Over his shoulder was the plain messenger bag he carried, and in one outstretched hand, he was giving Taiga some change.

"For the burger," he said.

Taiga shook his head and pushed his hand slightly away.

"I hardly noticed I was missing one. Besides, you could use the calories." He hoped his smirk came across as teasing. He didn't have the heart to tell Kuroko he was still hungry.

It sounded as if Kuroko had chuckled, but the sound was so slight it was impossible to tell. But Taiga liked it. The sounds he could make were more varied than he would have guessed.

The familiarity between the two of them caused him to open his mouth before he could think better of it.

"You could stay over again, if you want. It's Friday anyway."

_WhatamIdoingWhatamIdoing._

It's not like Kuroko was going to say yes. He had to have noticed how strange Taiga had been acting, how bizarre his recent conversations were, how he managed to hang around Kuroko just a little bit longer than necessary. If he was smart he'd say no and head home-

"Sure, I'd like to-"

"-That's okay, I'll just..." He stopped when he realized the answer hadn't been what he was expecting. "Oh. Sure."

He sat there for a moment, not knowing what to do. He hadn't really thought about actually having Kuroko follow him home. But if he was being honest, he was getting lonely. Spending time at practice and school was really the only way he spoke to anyone. It was comforting to have Kuroko at his house, even if he had to sleep in the same room as him. He'd lose sleep over it, but it'd be worth it.

If he had been trying to rid himself of Kuroko recently, he thought one night couldn't hurt. It must have been the Japanese heat getting to him. There had been nothing like it back in the States.

"But I did promise Kise that I'd get coffee with him. He doesn't like being out on his own."

Taiga made an annoyed sound and forced himself to look away.

"I can't get away from that guy."

Kuroko nodded a bit. "He can be annoying." Just as he finished speaking, he paused and made to go in the other direction.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to. I can come over after."

"I want to."

Taiga nearly flinched. He sounded like a schoolgirl. How much longer did he have to make a fool of himself before the whole Kuroko thing wore off? His body had even naturally turned to watch Kuroko when the other boy had made to leave.

Kuroko wore a ghost of a smile before he nodded a bit, leading Taiga to the coffee shop. The last of the sun dipped down for the night.

* * *

(A/N): Thank you for reading! I hope you all enjoyed. We need more KagamixKuroko! As you can tell, my stories are going to follow the whole "ex-aomine" set up, but with slightly darker tones.  
I am going to update this story soon, and sort of pick up from here, and travel on through whatever plot bunnies the next episode gives me.  
Thanks again! :)


	2. Kise Isn't Stupid

Once Taiga thought he had gotten himself under control, all hell had broken loose.

In his dream, he was walking into the pool area, where just last week the team had gone through the intense training that Aida had deemed necessary. The light through the windows marked the time at about four in the afternoon, which was normal, because in the waking world practice normally came after his last class of the day.

In his dreams, he had only seen Kuroko once, much to his relief. He could remember the dreams he'd gotten back in junior high, when he could barely control himself, and he'd be lying if he said they had been appropriate. One particular summer, he had had two growth spurts, and it had done strange things to his head- he could barely look at any girl in the eye for months. Luckily, his only dream with the boy had been innocent enough, though it had left him strangely out of place, more so than the old dreams ever would have.

He had been back in the states during that one dream, staring outside the window during class. He was daydreaming about summer. To his right, Kuroko sat patiently, his chair pulled over to Taiga's desk. He was smiling, and this time, it reached his eyes. His hair was a little longer. He was wearing casual clothes, since it wasn't Seirin, and he was speaking perfectly accented English, which was ridiculous. He spoke about summer vacation and how he wanted to go to a Celtics game. These things weren't normal, but they were easy enough to digest, and so Taiga came to cherish it when he was awake. When he finally looked at his vision of Kuroko in the eye, he had instantly woken up, and was cursed with the inability to face Kuroko in real life for days. But this he had predicted; it was only a matter of time before he would start incorporating his annoying emotional attachment to the boy into his day to day dreams.

What _wasn't _a predictable dream was the one he was having now; the practice pool sloshing violently from his team's practice, with Kise and Aomine there, silently sitting on a bench overlooking Seirin's infamous basketball team.

At that moment, he could remember thinking to himself, _This is a dream. They're not really here and they wouldn't be if I was awake, either, and-_

But even in a dream Aomine pissed him off. Just the way the other man was sitting was enough to switch on any adverse feelings Taiga had for him, and he quickly forgot how out of place the whole thing was. For a moment, he thought of challenging him again, to make up for his less than stellar one-on-one from a few days ago, because in the dream his knees didn't hurt anymore and he felt up to it.

He moved forward in the dreamworld, flexing his fingers to make sure he wouldn't have impaired movement from his unconscious. He moved about freely; the only thing he stopped himself from doing was looking at the pool, because he knew Kuroko would be there- no, _Tetsuya _would be there- and he knew that if he looked, even once, he would wake up and miss his chance.

Taiga looked down, away from the pool, and saw that he was in clothes that he knew no longer fit him - the clothes he had bought when he lived in America- and, luckily enough, they had magically grown . His shoes were his old Nikes. He was already dressed to play, but in the distance, Aomine lounged in a shirt and jeans, his feet propped awkwardly on the stacks of water bottle pallets Aida had brought.

Taiga forced himself forward, watching as Aomine laughed along with Kise. Now was his chance. He'd switch the dream to a court if he could, beat him within an inch of his life, and force himself to wake up before anything else could happen.

The only thing was, as soon as he opened his mouth, Aomine sat back on the bench and spoke up, the words muffled, and Taiga knew that it wouldn't matter if he himself spoke; no one would be able to hear him here.

"Kuroko, shouldn't you be working harder?"

Taiga paused, the name strange coming from Aomine. Hadn't he called the boy Tetsu the other day on the court?

He could hardly remember the rage from hearing the nickname that day, when Aomine had dared him to play against him. When Kuroko had told him he'd been called Tetsu at one point, that night at Maji Burger, he had figured it had been Kise, or his mother, or _someone else- _and the shock had been enough for him to dig his nails into his palm.

What was even more unsettling was the way Aomine had said it, his face lighting up, his tone friendly. He had sounded... nice. Genuine, even.

Kise frowned. "He already works hard, Kagami-chii."

_Kagam- why me? That idiot is mixing up names._

"I know he does. I'm just messing with him."

It was _wrong. _So _wrong _to hear Aomine like that, with a light tone in his voice, that strange teasing that was only common among friends. It sounded so familiar to his ears.

Taiga nearly turned his head to see Kuroko's reaction to it, just to make sense of it all- was this a messed up dream of the past? Was he seriously so delusional that his brain made up these _ridiculous _stories?

Above his dream, he could feel himself nearly waking up, that strange suction that forces someone to slowly wake without opening their eyes. In a quick motion he looked around, and in the corner of his eye Kuroko stood there, speaking with Aomine-

Except it _wasn't _Aomine, it really _was_ him, and Kise hadn't got the names mixed up after all, and _Oh God, God, I don't want to be like him-_

When he woke up he frantically grabbed his shirt to make sure it didn't read Gakuen.

He found he was wearing his plain white sleeping shirt, his blankets thrown over the bed and all the lights off. He had fallen asleep watching TV, a basketball game still playing on low volume. His homework lay forgotten, spilling out of his opened backpack and onto the floor. In his mind the dream was still fresh. He could see a sickening montage of himself, then Aomine, then himself again.

He quickly changed his clothes to get away from the acrid sweat of the dream. He had been unable to stay in them, fearing that somehow they were ingrained to the dream now, inescapable. When he finally laid back down in a fresh set of clothes, he stared at the ceiling for what seemed like an eternity, unable to stop the replay of his game with Aomine in his mind.

He hadn't gotten enough sleep for days after that. If he had never met Aomine, if he had never taken him on that day, then maybe he could have dreamt what he had and it wouldn't have bothered him. But the way Kuroko had spoke about him; the way Taiga knew, just _knew _the man had hurt his shadow, well- he was deathly afraid to even take a nap.

He experimented a few days later, sleeping in his livingroom instead of his own bedroom. Perhaps it was cursed now. But in what seemed like mere seconds in falling asleep, he saw himself dribbling a ball with such a disgusted look on his face that he forced himself to wake back up, and he played out the rest of the night watching Japanese Drama reruns on mute.

* * *

Taiga thought it had been complicated when he had found out his feelings for his partner. In retrospect, he thought he'd give an arm and a leg just to have those simple complications back in his life. Two weeks ago, when Kuroko had dragged him along to the coffee shop with Kise, it had been manageable. Hard, but manageable. It was nigh impossible to not imagine himself, alone, with Kuroko- tucked in the comfy chairs and drinking together, (even if he didn't know what the hell he had been drinking) but he had fared all right and had made it home without raising suspicion from Kise.

Surprisingly, Kuroko had been more talkative than usual, and with the strange public background, it had made him slightly more attractive. Kise hadn't been as loud as usual, and though he seemed irked to have Taiga show up, he had taken it in stride and had insisted on ordering the most ridiculous drink for the tall boy he could make up.

But this wasn't last week- this was _hell _week. With the lack of sleep and paranoia, Taiga found himself invited again to the coffee shop, standing in front of the menu and not understanding a damn thing on it, but trying desperately to pick a drink Aomine wouldn't.

He could feel Kuroko behind him, as he always could. It was distracting him from trying to find out the difference between a macchiato and a cappuccino.

"Hey, Kuroko-"

The boy gave him that look that had become so familiar in the past weeks. He nearly glared up at Taiga until he remembered.

"Right...Tetsuya, what the hell did you order?"

It seemed that Kuroko sighed a bit, momentarily enjoying the name before becoming disgruntled at Taiga's lack of manners.

"Something with caramel in it. Honestly, Kise orders them for me."

The confused look on his face was too close to endearing, so Taiga pulled his gaze away and slapped money on the counter. He pointed at the boy behind him.

"What he got. That. ...Please."

Without looking back or waiting for his change, he swiftly tried to locate Kise, who was off in a corner saving them chairs.

He had picked a good spot, at least. The chairs were more like booths that faced the windows, and that way Taiga could make sure no one... _threatening _could walk into the shop. In the clean windows he could see Kuroko behind him, his usual messenger bag thrown over his shoulders.

"Did you order the special I made you, Kagami?"

Kise had dropped the ridiculous chii ending recently, in accordance with Kuroko's quite public statement that Taiga hated him for it. His strained smile displayed how difficult an effort it was to bite the chii off.

"I ordered whatever he got."

"Wha? But the caramel white mocha is- and you're supposed to have an upside down machi-"

Kuroko sat between them before Kise could ramble on.

With a face of a wronged child, Kise took his own seat and rested his chin on both propped up hands. His bright blue hood hid most of his face, but Taiga didn't need to see him to know he probably looked like a puffer fish, his cheeks ballooned out in defiance.

Taiga was surprised at the guilty pang he felt for not ordering his tailored drink. He'd gotten too used to Kise.

In between, Kuroko swiveled on his chair, his feet barely making the second rung. He looked at Taiga patiently, waiting for him to sit. In the background, Kise mumbled that he was lucky enough to share Kuroko, at least.

Taiga sat with an air of annoyance, the calm atmosphere of the shop enough to set him on edge. Recently, he couldn't be in a place with no noise or activity; his mind tended to wander. He could already hear the things he was stopping himself from saying-

He realized Kise had asked him a question and was staring awkwardly past Kuroko at him.

"Well?"

"What?"

Kise blinked, as if his question had been impossible to ignore.

"What did you think of Aomine? You'll have to face him sooner or later."

The question threw Taiga off so much that his mind had to reel itself back in. What did he _think _of Aomine? Other than him being an incorrigible bastard? Now he'd have to deal with the subject outside of his dreams. Wonderful.

Kuroko was staring at him with the same expectant stare on his face.

"I... "

In all honesty, he couldn't answer the question. The name had already unnerved him enough; images of himself with that black jersey came to mind, his disgusted face, dribbling a basketball. He thought of Kuroko, alone in junior high, constantly defining himself as a shadow, useless without any light around. It even sounded like the dramas he'd become so tired of recently.

But.

But what if Kuroko still had a soft spot for the guy? Would he be creating bruises he wouldn't be able to take back? For the first time in his life, he was actually considering censoring his speech in fear of an unwanted reaction. _I really am watching too many of those damn shows.  
_  
"I don't like him." That was an understatement.

Kise's eyes widened and he laughed a bit.

"You don't _like _him," he said incredulously.

Taiga lifted his upper lip in defiance and shrugged.

"What? Is he a saint or something? I didn't know anything about him 'til then. And even _then_ he just _showed_ up. Am I supposed to say I'm his best friend?"  
He could tell he sounded more bitter than usual.

Kuroko's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. It was nearly indistinguishable, but Taiga caught it before he looked away.

Kise was shaking his head as he thought about it to himself.

"If you said that to his face, I'm sure I could sell tickets here for the fight. But c'mon, Kagami-chii- Kagami! _Kagami_- you can't be _that _brutish...!"

Taiga's ears couldn't help picking out the word 'brutish' and amplifying it tenfold. It was Kise's new word of the week, it seemed. He let the chii ending slide.

"I still don't get 'brute.' I didn't break anything."

Kuroko looked like he was ready to roll his eyes before he pushed away from the counter.

"They're probably ready," he announced, "the drinks." He walked away and Taiga swore for not using the excuse himself.

Taiga took the moment to catch his breath. He hadn't realized he'd been warily watching Kuroko from the corner of his eye, fearing he'd slip and say something stupid.

In the issuing silence, Kise leaned over and stared at him, his rings glittering from the sun outside. His casual hoodie and sunglasses sat precariously on his head, comfort being sacrificed for fashion.

His eyes twinkled for a second before turning stone cold.

"You _like_ him."

Taiga was glad to not have had his drink yet. He would have spit it out onto the window if he had. It was past his control to stop his eyebrows from lifting up and his face flushing.

"Huh?"

If Kise thought, in some sick, delusional way, that _he _liked _Aomine-_

But, no. _Wait._

The blood rushed from his face in a wild torrent.

Kise rolled his eyes and sat upright.

"It was bound to happen. I'm not blind."

Taiga felt the strain of shock on his face and he forced himself to cool his features. He failed miserably.

"No, I- I don't... that is-"

"Hmph. You expect me to believe that? It happens to everyone, anyway."

Taiga sat there with his mouth gaping. He was certain everyone in the shop was staring at him.

Kise watched him silently. It was scary how quickly he had switched to such a serious face.

"Don't you dare ask for my approval."

"Like hell I would!"

Taiga quickly shut his mouth, but Kise's face had already ripped into a smile of triumph.

Taiga stared at him with equal fervor- he had been stupid. Regardless of his attempts to dump the Kuroko thing, it had come to this. Having it out in the open made it even more realistic. But _Kise _finding out? Christ! That was just carelessness! He'd just figured out about it _himself_ but a month ago.

"It's almost like I'm having déjà vu. You really are like him."

Kise turned casually to the window, trying to cut the conversation off. He seemed delightfully pleased. For a moment Taiga sat there, confused, thinking Kise had been drawing similarities between himself and Kuroko, but...

Aomine. He had to mean Aomine this time. In a fleeting rush, he saw red.

"I'm nothing like him. I don't care if-"

"Nothing like him? _Nothing _like him? You even play basketball the same way. If Kuroko is following you around, why the hell would you picture yourself any different than Aomine?"

That really stung. Taiga felt an odd twisting in his gut, a strange drop followed by the weightless sensation of a horrible reckoning.

Kise looked at him in surprise.

"I... I didn't mean to come across like that. Really, Kagami, I didn't. I just- I'm bitter about it. About him. Aomine. I don't want Kuroko to..."

The look on Kise's face stopped Taiga from shouting out anything else. He looked sad; beaten down, even. But in seconds it was gone, replaced with something that Taiga would have run from if he wasn't stuck here waiting for Kuroko.

"But by the way you're allowed to call him Tetsuya, I'd say things are progressing pretty fa-"

"Shut your-"

Taiga thanked the Gods that his ability to spot his partner had been perfected so well. Kuroko was a mere handful of feet away, desperately trying to get the three drinks to their booth. If he had opened his mouth, just one more time, the cat would have been out of the bag, and he didn't like to think of what could have happened next.

Kise jumped up first, his face reverting back to his doting hen-like expression that was in special reserve for Kuroko. He took his own drink but let Kuroko give Taiga's his, waggling his eyebrows from behind the shorter boy as it happened. Taiga glared and swiveled on his chair to face back at the window.

It was easy enough for the three of them to fall into silence, just as soon as Kise seemed to drop the whole thing. It took about five minutes for him to stop darting his gaze between Taiga and Kuroko, and once or twice he seemed like he wanted to tell the boy, but he kept his mouth shut and only occasionally commented on passerbys. Taiga prayed he'd be tired enough that evening to have no dreams.

* * *

Kuroko, on the other hand, hardly ever had dreams. He will wake up and remember darkness, but not much else. He supposes that is how it should be; a shadow can dream, but never of anything significant.

He has never had a nightmare, either, so he is shocked to discover himself in one; Aomine is sitting in his classroom, his feet on a desk, his head propped against the back wall. Kagami is writing something on the whiteboard and is thoroughly embarrassed to be doing so. Kuroko can see the red on his ears and finds it unsettling that he finds it so becoming on him.

Kuroko has never dreamed of Aomine, has never so much as really thought about him since the old days; but its shocking to see him, in a tidy school uniform, his eyes slowly raking the classroom. It is off-putting because Kuroko doesn't want him here; not in this new place- not when he's finally gotten rid of the memory of him.

Aomine yawns and in the front of the classroom Kagami stops his writing. He doesn't look at the class, but his hand shakes a bit, and it takes him a few moments to continue writing. Kuroko can feel the sweat on his neck from across the classroom.

He knows its ridiculous to feel so uncomfortable. Aomine was a passionate person, he knew that- but he could tell that his dream was painting him in such a way that he seemed ominous. _But I know the type of person he is, and he really is harmless. Sort of._

Nothing else happens, and for the longest time, Aomine yawns, Kagami pauses, and the dream continues. Kuroko has no idea what to make of it, but he can hardly dismiss it.

He knew that at one point, he would have to deal with it. He prided himself on staying relatively objective when it came to making decisions like this, but-  
He didn't know how he'd deal with his feelings for Kagami when his and Aomine's old memories were sitting in the background. Bored and tired and outdated, but still there. _  
_


End file.
